Music of Past Pandemics Has Same Themes as Life During COVID-19, CU Boulder Says

A researcher at CU Boulder says the resistance, division and conspiracies during the COVID-19 pandemic are nothing new — according to music made in the past. 

According to CU Boulder Today, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, Austin Okigbo, studied music created in South Africa during the smallpox, 1918 flu and HIV/AIDS pandemics, and found many similarities in human behavior.

'It’s no longer just the biological virus,' Okigbo said to CU Boulder Today. 'Now we're dealing with the pandemic of misinformation and the pandemic of political bickering.'

But, that's not necessarily anything that hasn't happened in societies before.

While most of us have never experienced anything like the current COVID-19 pandemic in our lifetimes, by looking into what music was expressing during those past events, Okigbo found that the U.S.'s mask resistance, partisan issues and conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus are very similar those past pandemics in South Africa.

All three pandemics' music expressed similar themes to things we're experiencing right now. You can read the report from CU Boulder here.

Here are a few songs we got from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (recorded from quarantine).

Twenty One Pilots - Level of Concern 

Quarantine - Blink-182

Avenue Beat - F2020

Luke Combs- Six Feet Apart

 Pitbull - I Believe That We Will Win (World Anthem)

Turbo, Gunna, Young Thug - Quarantine Clean